Mounting partitions in TWRP as RW for dynamic partitioned devices

Last update : 3/8/2024 (Samsung Galaxy S9 enters the list)

Intro

This is the (slightly) more detailed version of the 23/8/2021 blogpost where I talked about mounting partitions in TWRP as RW for dynamic partitioned phones like the X3P.

Here's hoping Android upgrades won't fuck stuff up even worse...

Guide

1. Boot to TWRP (or whatever TWRP-based recovery you get), if you haven't booted already.
2. In TWRP, enter Mount & tick (mount) the partitions you want to mount as RW. At this moment, the partitions will be mounted as RO, but it's fine - it'll change on the next step.
Where this Mount option depends on whatever recovery you use (unless it's LineageOS recovery or something based off that; in which case you can't), so take your time discovering this option.


3. Browse to Advanced > Terminal, & enter "mount -o rw,remount [partition to modify]"
Here's some examples for the partitions :


• System : mount -o rw,remount /system_root


• System_ext : mount -o rw,remount /system_ext


• Vendor : mount -o rw,remount /vendor


• Product : mount -o rw,remount /product


4. Edit your system files as you please - copy, cut, delete, whatever.

Tested devices list

Success (TWRP mounts partitions as RO, but can be mounted as RW with this guide)

• Poco X3P (Nebrassy's TWRP (unofficial 3.5.2 & 3.6.2_12, official 3.6.0_11 & 3.6.2_11))
• Google Pixel 3 (official TWRP 3.7.0-12)

No testing needed (due to lack of dynamic partition & TWRP mounts partitions as RW in A11 & beyond; make sure mount system partition read-only setting is unchecked if available)

• Poco F1 (pre-dynamic retrofit; confirmed with official TWRP 3.5.2-9.0, Reignz' TWRP up to 3.7.0-A12-V2 & Unofficial OrangeFox R12.1 by Tejas_Singh; though both Reignz' TWRP & Tejas_Singh's OFOX requires the command for /system_ext)
• Mi A2 (confirmed with Nebrassy's unofficial TWRP 3.5.1)
• LG V30 (unofficial TWRP 3.3.1.2 & official TWRP 3.7.0_9-0)
• OnePlus 3T (confirmed with official TWRP 3.6.2_9.0 on A11 ROMs)
• Samsung Galaxy S9 (official TWRP 3.7.0_9-0; no decryption for internal storage (/data & /sdcard); issues mounting useless /prebuilt folder unless wiped)

No testing needed (dynamic partitions)

• Poco X3N (with brigudav's TWRP)
brigudav's TWRP (at least since 3.6.2_11.1 27/8/2022 build) actually mounts partitions as rw by default. In addition, it also provides a script to mount partitions as rw.

Fail (TWRP unable to mount partition)

• None for now

Untested for now

• None for now

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